Criticism of the new Georgia election law is wildly exaggerated and bears little resemblance to its content. While the motives underlying the law may be suspect, its provisions are unremarkable and similar to those of other states. It contains nothing that plausibly resembles “voter suppression” or “Jim Crow” and is unlikely to deter citizens interested in voting. On the other hand, politicization and misrepresentation of the law could further discourage those chronic non-voters who are already turned off by our fractured politics.
Donald Trump is gone but our polarized, hyper-partisan, and often dishonest political discourse continues. One example is the furious attack on a recently enacted Georgia election law by Democrats and much of the media. They portray the law as a racist voter-suppression measure that is equivalent to, or even worse than, the notorious “Jim Crow” laws that once prevailed in the segregated South. President Biden led the charge with gross exaggerations and outright falsehoods about the law that would be the envy of Trump. He absurdly described the law as “Jim Crow on steroids,” mischaracterized a provision dealing with water for voters, and repeatedly asserted the patently false claim that the law reduces voting hours. (It actually expands them.) He strongly encouraged Major League Baseball to move its all-star game out of Georgia in response to the law, which it promptly did. Taking their cue from such polemics, a number of corporate executives also condemned the law.
An examination of the content of the law tells a different story. The most remarkable thing about the Georgia law is how unremarkable it is. Like every state election statute, the Georgia law strikes a balance between ease of voting and safeguards to ensure the integrity of the vote. It contains provisions that make voting more convenient as well as provisions that impose new security-related requirements on voters. (See, e.g., here, here, and here.) Most provisions of each kind resemble those found in the laws of many other states, both “red” and “blue.”
Here are some of the provisions that have encountered the most withering criticism:
- Applications for mail-in ballots will not be sent automatically to all registered voters. Some states send unsolicited applications to all voters; most do not.
- The earliest date for requesting mail-in ballots is reduced from 6 months to 78 days before an election. Whatever the reason for this change, 78 days seems more than ample time.
- A numerical ID (e.g., driver’s license number) is required for mail-in ballots, as opposed to relying on more time-consuming and subjective signature matching to verify them.
- Early voting in runoff elections is reduced from three weeks to one week, which seems adequate since runoffs involve fewer candidates and ones who are already familiar to voters.
- Drop boxes for depositing completed ballots, which were not allowed at all before 2020, are permanently authorized but they are limited in number, must be located inside government offices, and are available only during regular office hours. The latter two provisions obviously enhance security over the open-air, unmonitored drop boxes that were available 24-7 during the 2020 election.
- Non-election officials cannot give food or water to voters within 150 feet of polling places. This provision has been widely seized upon by critics and mischaracterized as an inhumane “ban” on water for voters stuck in election lines, particularly minority voters who tend to face longer lines. (E.g., here.) It is a variant on laws in most states that prohibit partisan electioneering within certain distances of polling locations. The Georgia law specifically authorizes election officials to make water available to voters. The law also contains several provisions aimed at the truly humane and more important goal of reducing voter wait times.
- The law provides the state greater authority over local election officials. Cynical critics assert that this will enable state officials to fraudulently alter voting results. Proponents view these provisions as enhancing accountability for the efficient conduct of elections, such as by reducing voter waiting times and tabulating votes more quickly.
The above provisions and others highlighted by critics seem reasonable on their face and do not appear to impose significant barriers for voters, minority or otherwise. (Assertions that minority voters are less capable of complying with voting rules are condescending if not themselves racist.) None of the provisions plausibly resembles “voter suppression” or “Jim Crow.” It is noteworthy that Georgia election official Brad Raffensperger, who was widely praised for his honesty and courage in rejecting Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020, strongly supports the law. He equates the disinformation being spread about the law to Trump’s outrageous disinformation campaign.
In one of the few insightful media contributions, New York Times election expert Nate Cohn observes that the Georgia law is unlikely to significantly affect turnout and could even increase it. He concludes: “In the final account, it will probably be hard to say whether [the law] had any effect on turnout at all.” Citing several studies, Cohn points out that convenience of voting is simply not as important as often assumed because voters can readily adapt to most requirements.
The intense controversy over the Georgia law stems less from its substance than from false narratives promoted by both political parties. Many Republicans shamefully embraced Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. With considerable justification, Democrats view the Georgia law and similar initiatives in other states as a response to Trump’s “big lie.” However, Democrats go to the other extreme and treat the absence of proof of widespread voter fraud as somehow meaning that most election security measures are per se unnecessary and therefore must be efforts to suppress the vote. In this regard, they are pushing legislation known as the “For the People Act” (H.R. 1 and S. 1, 117th Cong.) that would largely federalize election procedures and supersede many security features of state law.
Political strategies over election law also have less to do with citizens who want to vote than the approximately one-third of citizens eligible to vote but who show no interest in doing so. Ironically, these competing strategies (Republicans favor security; Democrats favor ease of voting) flow from two dubious impressions that both political parties share. One is that most chronic non-voters would favor Democrats over Republicans. However, studies suggest that they would likely add fairly equal shares of Republican and Democratic votes. The other is that making voting even easier than it is now would get many of these folks to the polls. However, opinion surveys indicate that inconvenience is not a major reason why they decline to vote. Instead, the main reasons are cynicism regarding our political system and simple lack of interest. The false narratives and misimpressions now indulged by both parties and abetted by the media serve only to re-enforce the cynicism and apathy of these non- voters
If our politics were less dysfunctional, both parties would abandon their false narratives and work together to craft neutral election rules that ensured both ease and security of voting. They could then rely on promoting their respective policy agendas as their primary means to attract and retain voters.